While we all follow the latest Fashion Week shows, take some time today to familiarize yourself with the women of Bamako, Mali who are using their fabric to influence fashion, and empower their own families and communities. Says SnagFilms:

â€œBamako Chic: Threads of Power, Color and Culture,â€ a one hour documentary, tells the story of women from Bamako, Mali, whose artistic creativity became a force for alleviating poverty and affirming identity in West Africa. In the 1960s, a small group of impoverished and resourceful Malian women cloth dyers reinvigorated the craft of hand-dyed cloth using a fabric called bazin (imported polished cotton), impacting their families and their communities. Thanks to micro-credit programs introduced in the mid-1980s, the production of hand-dyed bazin has flourished into a lucrative enterprise dominated by women.

Today, skilled cloth dyers are revered throughout the West African region and beyond. Interweaving the personal stories of five women, â€œBamako Chicâ€ illustrates what can happen, economically and culturally, when access to credit intersects with womenâ€™s creativity and ingenuity. The film will also expand perceptions of Africa, a continent more often portrayed in terms of its political and public health tragedies and less about its people and their collective and personal triumphs.”